


Eromenos

by MoragMacPherson



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, M/M, but yeah there are people eating horses in this, it's not my fault the horses eat people, it's the source material, my god the tags i have to use just because of the source material, myth-accurate animal cruelty, passing references to ancient greek cultural behaviors around sex, very loose retelling of the labors of hercules, we're talking xena levels of very loose, which don't actually happen in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 13:32:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15268542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoragMacPherson/pseuds/MoragMacPherson
Summary: It doesn't happen quite the same way the poets always say it does





	Eromenos

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eisoj5](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eisoj5/gifts).



> It started with a cup, okay? [This cup](http://moragmacpherson.tumblr.com/post/175822388575/senzanoia-the-warren-cup-roman-silver-10-20) to be precise, and it's eisoj5's birthday and I'd been trying to think of an AU, and once I had a roman sex cup in my head, the AU wheel landed on 'Greco-Roman mythology'. Sometimes that's just how it works. Thanks to attackedstoria for her encouragement while I was writing this. Quite a few extensive liberties are taken and I still had to tag it this way, but really: this is intended as a fun little birthday romp and not all that deep. Un-beta'd, because usually eisoj5 does that for me and, well... Happy Birthday, Josie, and thank you so much for everything you've given me, including this ship.

Bodhi wouldn't necessarily say he enjoys working at the Krennician stables, but it is a living, even if the workload puts what that Sisyphus fellow is reportedly going through down in the Underworld to shame. Three thousand immortal cows somehow manage to produce a whole lot of very mortal smelling dung, and Bodhi's the only stable hand that Krennic's ever bothered to hire. Still, Bodhi gets paid at the end of every single week for doing what shoveling he can, so he doesn't kick up too much fuss about it. At least not until the day that a golden-haired demigod shows up, nice and early in the morning, and just stands at the doors of the stables, looking a bit miffed about the whole situation.

Bodhi assumes that the man, who at this point just sort of gives off a bit of a demigod vibe, has that look in response to the smell. "It's a bit much, the smell, but you get used to it. Or you could go be someplace less smelly, but at this point the whole of the kingdom smells a bit of the stables, has since I was a child," he tells the man.

The man guffaws (he is a bit short for a demigod, but the guffaw seems very demigod-ish). "They say they've never been cleaned, that cleaning them is impossible."

Bodhi scowls at this supposed 'they'. "That's a lie, I do my best to clean them out every damn day, but I've only been here five years, the immortal cows have been here at least thirty, and Krennic's too much of a," and Bodhi looks around to make sure Krennic himself isn't around listening, "cheap bastard to pay anyone else to do it. But 'they' are welcome to pick up a shovel and help, if 'they' have that much of a problem with it. It's not impossible, it just takes more than just me!"

The man appears thoughtful. "Aren't you afraid I'll tell your master what you said?"

Bodhi snorts. "Have you met him? If not, once you do, you'll never tell him a damn thing. No one actually tells Krennic anything. Why else would he still be wearing that cape-let?"

"I have met him, and you have a good point. Several good points, actually," says the man, letting out a hearty guffaw of laughter. "I'm Luke Skywalker, and I've been tasked by the gods with cleaning these stables as penance, and I may have overestimated my abilities and told your master that I could do it in one day."

Bodhi's eyes go very wide— okay, he's not just giving off demigod vibes, but is actually a demigod. "You're Luke Skywalker! Defender of Thebes, slayer of the Minyans!"

Luke has the decency to look a bit sheepish about all of the titles. "The poets may have exaggerated some of that, but sure, that's me. And you are?"

Bodhi recovers just a little bit, running his hand through his hair. "Bodhi Rook, stablehand. Sorry that I smell a bit of dung, but it comes with the job. Which you're, uh— how does a demigod get assigned to stable duty?"

Luke blushes. "As I said, penance for some misdeeds, I've been instructed by the gods that I must serve King Yoda for ten years or ten feats of strength. Once completed, they'll return my immortality."

Bodhi nods, because that sounds like the sort of thing that fabled hero demi-gods have to go through. "And one of your feats is trying to clean these stables in a day? They're really starting you out at the bottom."

"One of the feats I'll _do_ , there is no try," says Luke, his voice rather serene compared to the way he's wrinkling his nose at the smell.

Bodhi huffs out a laugh as he looks at the giant stables full of dung. "Well, don't you have to try first before you do it? You wouldn't do it if you didn't try first. That doesn't really make any sense," he says, offering Luke his shovel. "Though you are more than welcome to try to put me out of a job."

Luke takes the shovel and looks thoughtful again, turning away from the giant stables full of dung, towards the river. "You're not entirely wrong, but I think I have an idea. And if this does indeed put you out of a job, I might have one you like better than shoveling dung. I have many other labours ahead of me, and I might be in need of a chariot boy."

Bodhi can feel his blush rising up to his ears: he's no fool, and he knows exactly what 'chariot boy' means. "Like an eromenos? Thought I'd aged out of that category, and I thought yours was your nephew," he says, looking down at his feet, though Luke is a very attractive golden-haired demi-god, and being his eromenos definitely sounds like a step up from shoveling Krennic's immortal cow dung.

"I don't much like my nephew," says Luke with a sniff, frowning again when the dung smell hits his nostrils. "And I really need the companionship and help with the labors more than anything else. Anyway, want to help me try this plan I have?" he adds with a wry grin. "You can think over the chariot boy question for the rest of the day."

Later, after Luke's diverted the river into the stables to wash them clean, Bodhi's retrieved the couple of cattle who'd been washed away in it (they're immortal cows so they're disgruntled, but fine, and both Bodhi and the cattle smell a bit better for the fact that they've had a swim), and Luke's gone ahead and killed Krennic for reneging on his promise to give Luke three hundred of the cows for managing the job in one day, Bodhi has to admit it's a pretty good plan. He's also feeling a bit more open to the whole eromenos question. "Also, you killed my previous employer, not that I really mind. You'll need someone to take care of the cows you're taking, anyway."

Luke's smile outshines the sun when Bodhi agrees— Bodhi really needs to find a poet and find out which god begat him, because he's heard thunder god, but a sun god seems more likely— and lets out a laugh. "We'll let my nephew take care of them: a few years of shoveling shit is just what he needs for his attitude issues. Meanwhile, you and I should have… _adventures_."

Bodhi's not entirely proud of how weak in the knees he goes from the way that Luke looks at him. "Yeah, adventures sound like much more fun than shoveling shit." So Bodhi goes along with Luke, to provide a bit of companionship and to help Luke complete more impossible adventures, because this one had gone well enough and Bodhi kind of can't wait to see what Luke comes up with next. Then again, when they get back to King Yoda and he announces that Luke's little trick of actually getting paid for the job meant that it doesn't count towards the labors that will grant him his immortality, Bodhi takes a slightly more sour view of things. "That doesn't seem right. You're basically his slave for ten years—"

"Twelve now, this is the second one of my feats that he's declared 'doesn't count' on," says Luke, looking a bit morose himself, which isn't exactly the best look on him. He'd kicked a rock on the way home and accidentally kicked it right through some poor guy's house with his semi-divine strength, though the family had been much less irate about it after finding out _who_ had kicked the rock and when Luke had offered them an immortal cow as recompense for the fright and damage.

Bodhi shakes his head. "That doesn't seem right to me. Isn't there anyone else you could go to, y'know, to file a complaint?" he asks as they get to the chambers that Yoda's alloted Luke for his period of service. They're… nice enough, if you weren't raised a demigod, but Bodhi suspects Luke might find them a bit wanting, winding up a bit distracted by the trophy collection, which includes a dented, bloodstained lyre, among other things. When he turns back, Luke simply points to the shrine, which does include quite a few relics to the thunder god, though some of them are similarly dented as the lyre, which Bodhi understands: having your father allow this shit to happen to you in the first place is bound to cause some familial tensions. "Ah, right. Sorry about that. Though I guess getting to be immortal at the end of them has to be some comfort?"

Luke lets out a soft snort. "If I survive to the end. This latest labor might have been among the smelliest, but at least it wasn't particularly life threatening. Now: let's figure out some kind of bed for you, seeing as you're mostly here for adventures," he says, and Bodhi's impressed at Luke's carpentry abilities for a demigod, though he certainly didn't miss the blush or the 'mostly' comment— he's got what sounds like another five years of adventures with Luke ahead of him, and who knows what will happen in the future... 

… well, the gods, at least some of the gods probably know, but Bodhi doesn't, and he isn't ruling anything out.

And as it happens, the next thing the future holds for Luke and Bodhi is a whole lot of dirty, stinking birds. With metal beaks and poisonous dung, in a swamp, so it winds up being both stinky and life-threatening, which is a whole lot of not fun, though he supposes it counts as an adventure. Bodhi doesn't really want to know where Luke got a whole amphora full of hydra blood, but he's dipping Luke's arrows in them as fast as he can manage. At least the way his hands are shaking keeps the rattle in his other hand rattling away, driving more of the birds up and out of their roosts. "Are you sure this doesn't count as too much assistance? I don't want this one to be a 'doesn't count,'" he shouts over the din as he hands Luke another arrow to shoot the wretched birds out of the sky.

Luke laughs, which really should be irritating in the face of this much danger, but he's Luke, so instead it winds up being kind of charming, as he continues to fire away. "You're not actually killing the birds, I'm the one doing the killing, this will be fine," he yells back, and Bodhi does have to give him points for optimism despite the situation.

"But some of them are getting away— you didn't exactly kill them all," says Bodhi, though the number of bird corpses is still pretty impressive, he thinks as he kicks another one into the swamp with a wet 'glurp' noise. He sighs. "Though I doubt they'll ever come back to Stymphalia again— maybe we can say that any of the survivors aren't technically Stymphalian birds any longer," he muses.

Luke grins. "I still like the way that you think, Bodhi," and Bodhi's knees still go a bit weak when he does that, for all that they've been sleeping in the same room for almost a year now and nothing's actually happened because Luke's a gentleman despite what all the poets say. Bodhi's still mulling the whole 'eromenos' thing over, also despite what all the poets say. At the end of his labors, Luke's going to be an actual immortal god, and Bodhi's heard what the poets have said about all the mortals who are lovers to actual immortal gods, and it rarely ends well, so he continues to consider the issue. Once they convince King Yoda that the surviving birds aren't Stymphalian now, there remain six labors to complete, so Bodhi has plenty of time to think.

They're in Thrace when Bodhi gets an idea that maybe Luke's even fonder of him than he lets on, though his trust is explicit— Bodhi's a trained stablehand, so he should be fine looking after four horses, while Luke goes to negotiate with their bloodthirsty royal owner, another distant cousin of Luke's named Tarkin. But the damned horses are bloodthirsty, and the locals say they only calm down when they've eaten and what they would really like to eat is Bodhi. Bodhi's opposed to this, so he makes sure they're tethered as tightly as he can manage and goes to hunt something for them to eat— but when he returns with some deer meat after several hours, he finds Luke distraught and covered with blood, which gets a little awkward when Luke wraps him in a bear hug. "Bodhi! I'd thought the mares had eaten you!" he cries, the haunch of venison squelching between them before Bodhi drops it to return the hug.

"Nope, not eaten— just went to get something to calm them down that wasn't eating me," says Bodhi in a low whisper because Luke's hugs are always a bit much and this one threatens to squeeze the breath right out of him. "But they seem pretty calm already. Do I really want to know?" he asks as Luke finally loosens his hold on him, though he does keep one hand on Bodhi's hip as he turns to face the horses, who seem placid enough now, though Bodhi's not taking any steps closer.

Luke looks down, biting on his lips for a moment before he speaks. "I, uh— I might have gotten a little upset when I'd thought they'd eaten you. They might be calm because they're in the middle of digesting Tarkin for his crimes," he says, holding up a finger. "But then, he's apparently been feeding people to them for ages, so really, it's poetic justice, right?" he asks, his voice almost pleading.

Bodhi's heart breaks a little because Luke's a demigod and a hero, and as such, expected to do things like kill the wicked, but at his core, Luke's so damned soft-hearted that Bodhi often wonders if Luke wouldn't be happier being a quiet farmer someplace. He tosses the squished haunch of deer towards the mares in case they get peckish and wraps his arms around Luke. "You won't get any argument from me about that, but I do wish sometimes you wouldn't worry so much about the 'poetic' when you're stuck dispensing justice," he murmurs, pressing a kiss to Luke's hairline. The joke at least gets a chuckle out of Luke, though Bodhi hopes he maybe takes it a little to heart, and oh, but it feels good to have those nearly divine arms wrapped around him.

Later, they don't talk about the Queen of the Amazons. Bodhi's jealousy isn't exactly becoming, even though he knows it's irrational— he's not even sleeping with Luke, and from what he knows of the Amazons, he doubts she does either, before things get… worse. The Queen's death is generally regarded as the fault of Luke's meddling step-parent, Sheev, but that doesn't stop Luke from taking it all too personally. The altar relics get just that much more battered and dented afterwards and Bodhi doesn't say a thing. Sometimes, life isn't fair or kind, even for heroic demigods and their companions. 

Honestly, the cattle drive from Erytheia is almost a relief after the Amazon debacle, for all that it's a bit of a pain in the ass and Sheev keeps sending gadflies their way, but the trip is good for them both. "Do you think Yoda knew how much we needed this vacation?" he asks Luke, tossing another stone into the river that's mysteriously flooded ahead of them while Luke's merrily hurling boulders into it so that they all can safely ford it.

Luke snorts. "I doubt that he knows what a vacation is, but either way I don't much mind. Besides, it's another cattle job, and I picked just the right man for it, all those years ago," he says, and he just has this _look_ on his face, those blue eyes sparkling, that Bodhi's longstanding reluctance to actually go through with all the supposed duties of an eromenos may as well have just had a boulder thrown at it. 

When they get back to Yoda's kingdom and Yoda's response to Luke having successfully completed another task is to sacrifice all the cows to _Sheev_ of all the gods, Bodhi's had enough. The kings and gods just can't seem to find new ways to insult and demean Luke and Luke will just… take it, smiling the whole time so that they don't think that it doesn't hurt him, but Bodhi's _there_ every night, after, when Luke takes out his frustrations on his paltry belongings and the altar which can't take nearly as much abuse as Luke can. He finally summons up his courage and when they're undressing for the night, Bodhi climbs into Luke's bed, not his own. Luke's eyes go wide and he doesn't even move for a few moments. "What changed?" he finally asks, voice trembling a bit, and really, is Bodhi worth all of this?

Bodhi holds the blanket open for Luke, trying hard not to blush. "The gods keep saying 'fuck you' and who am I to question the gods? It's time to fuck you— or for you to fuck me, whichever you prefer," and Luke laughs as he climbs into the bed and it's _good_ , so good that a part of Bodhi curses himself for having misgivings in the first place because he could have had this all along. It's so good that even the part of Bodhi that has misgivings hopes beyond all his experience that it actually might be worth it in the end.

The caper with the apples actually counts as an 'adventure' in Bodhi's mind. It feels pretty good to wind up saying 'fuck you' to a god, even if it is a god who's already been a bit screwed over to the other gods. Still, Luke can't fuck Bodhi if he's stuck holding up the sky for the rest of eternity, and over the past year Bodhi's become rather fond of that part of their relationship. The look on Yoda's face when they walk into the throne room with the apples is both sublimely satisfying and a bit worrying, because there's only one year and one labor left in Luke's term of service, and Bodhi's a little terrified of what he'll come up for the last one…

… and rightfully so, because for his final labor, Luke has to go to the bloody Underworld. "You can't follow me on this one, I won't let you, you're entirely mortal and I'm not sure that you'd be allowed to return, and I can't have that," says Luke, looking a bit grim the night after he's returned from the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Bodhi's not proud of the fact that he's a little relieved by Luke's edict, because it doesn't feel right after all these years, Luke going on alone, but it makes sense which isn't terribly much comfort. "I suppose you made it through four labors alone before you met me," he murmurs, sitting on Luke's lap and letting himself be pulled into Luke's embrace— they're arms that he's seen hold up the entire sky and they feel even better, now that Bodhi knows just how tender they can be. But in the morning they and the Luke they're attached to have to leave him to go tame the guard dog of the Underworld, and Bodhi's… pretty sure they'll be very effective. Really, the only issue is that Cerberus has three heads to pat and Luke only has the two hands, but Bodhi also knows Luke will be granted his immortality once he's done… and he's less sure how he feels about that.

Luke's in the Underworld for longer than Bodhi expects. Bodhi hates everything, smashes another couple of relics in his anxiety and fear because he can't stand the damned gods, can't leave their rooms for days for fear of being smited the next time he sets foot out of doors. But Luke's going to come back, he _has_ to.

Luke _does_ come back with that same shit-eating grin on his face and Bodhi practically hurls himself at him, peppering his face with kisses and not minding the three-headed dog that's happily panting just inside the door. "Yoda turn and hid, I laughed," says Luke, golden and fully immortal and easily the most perfect being Bodhi's ever seen.

"Of course you did, you're always laughing, what took you so fucking long?" asks Bodhi once he's done kissing Luke for now, hugging Luke tightly— he'll get him for a mortal lifetime, and that's enough for most mortals, it'll be enough for him.

Luke presses a kiss to the side of Bodhi's face. "Had to negotiate with my Uncle and Aunt about a few things. Not getting smited for borrowing their dog, of course, but I also had some conditions about accepting my own immortality, and I thought it'd be best to get the guarantees straight from the source," he says, pushing Bodhi's hair back affectionately. "I like them quite a bit more than most of my other relatives."

Bodhi shakes his head. "Of course you do, the rest of your relatives are dreadful, going to have to live the rest of my life under a copper roof after the way I spent the last week cursing them," he admits, looking with a bit of shame at the nearly demolished altar.

Luke takes a second look at the demolished altar, but shakes his head as well, stroking Bodhi's cheek. "No you don't— the big thing I was negotiating with them about was you," he says, setting Bodhi aside for a moment to pull something out of his pack, and Bodhi's eyes couldn't be wider when he produces a golden apple.

"I— I recognize that, we— we saw them last year, that's from— from the Hesperides." he says with a gasp. "You kept one?" he says, still not quite believing.

"Yoda didn't think to ask for all of them, it still counts, and my Aunt and Uncle agreed not to take you, if you ate one, and you agreed not to eat chicken anymore," says Luke. "It was a negotiation, I had to give them _something_ , the gods tend to be very picky about that," he says. "I couldn't really imagine immortality without you," admits Luke and Bodhi gives him the longest, most loving kiss he's ever given him, because it's Luke.

When the kiss breaks he rests his forehead against Luke's. "A small farm. No more adventures. We'll tend our immortal cows until the end of the world," he whispers. "Maybe, in a few hundred years, we'll even set up a shrine again. And no, I won't eat any chicken."

Luke's smile has never been brighter. "So that's a yes? Because I was going to wait to ravish you until you'd had time to think, figured I'd return the dog while you did it, that was my plan," he teases. Bodhi has to admit it's a pretty good plan, even if they wind up doing it a little out of order.


End file.
